Umpire Robinson blew the whistle to begin the game and promptly handed the ball to Johnston to take the free kick.

Carlton managed to retrieve possession from the kick-in, and Johnston was awarded another free kick for being tripped by Collins and duly converted his set shot for the first goal of the game.

From the kick-in, Hawthorn's enforcer wingman DiPierdomenico collected the ball and was charging forward when Johnston caught him flush with an elbow to the jaw, for which he earned a report.

Carlton continued to struggle with accuracy when Naley's snap missed to the right, until finally Johnston picked up the ball after Schwab had lost it in a tackle and dashed forward before steadying and kicking truly on his trusty left foot for his second goal at the 12-minute mark.

Platten and DiPierdomenico added further goals from set shots, and when Kennedy kicked his second after the quarter-time siren, the Hawks had grabbed a three-point lead, despite having been outplayed for much of the term.

As that day's Norm Smith Medallist David Rhys-Jones recalled in an interview many years later: I couldn't believe it, as we had dominated the play.

The Norm Smith Medal was presented by former Melbourne champion and premiership captain John Beckwith to Carlton's David Rhys-Jones.

[2] It was sweet revenge for both Carlton and Rhys-Jones; in the previous season's Grand Final defeat, his direct opponent had been Gary Ayres, who went on to win the first of his two Norm Smith Medals.

After the presentation of the premiership medals, Craig Bradley walked across to injured teammate Peter Motley, who had been left disabled following a car accident earlier in the year.

[5]Just two months after the disappointment of losing the grand final, Hawthorn were dealt another blow when coach Allan Jeans was admitted to hospital with a brain haemorrhage.

Although surgery to repair an aneurysm was successful, the health scare was serious enough to force Jeans to stand out of football for the whole of the 1988 VFL season.